Closer to the Pump

To fill your environmentally sound flex-fuel vehicle with E85 – 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline – all a Maine resident must do now is drive to Lititz, Pa., where the closest public station exists, according to the Department of Energy web site. That’s 605 miles from Bangor. The absence of E85 stations in Maine and the rest of New England obviously discourages the demand for cleaner cars that could use this product, making concept legislation by state Rep. Ken Lindell welcome.

Mixing ethanol into fuel not only displaces the need for some oil-based gasoline, but it produces less carbon dioxide even as more ethanol is required per mile than regular gas. Maine has a strong interest in encouraging as many promising alternatives to gasoline as it can, and while ethanol isn’t going to solve environmental and energy problems on its own, residents can’t use any of this alternative unless it has stations considerably closer than Pennsylvania.

Rep. Lindell, a Republican from Frankfort, has only a title so far for his legislation – Resolve, Directing the Department of Transportation to Develop a Pilot Program to Establish Refueling Stations for Ethanol. We would add that lawmakers consider specifying that the ethanol be made from cellulose, being tested currently, rather than sugars and starches. According to news reports, cellulosic ethanol, made from agricultural and forest-product wastes, generates fewer toxic emissions when produced and displaces far more greenhouse gases than regular ethanol.

In a recent edition of the National Journal, the vehicles engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, Don MacKenzie, said, “The potential for cellulosic ethanol to help tackle oil dependence and global warming is there, but it will take a long-term commitment and improvements in vehicle efficiency for that potential to be realized.” Mr. MacKenzie properly emphasized the importance of improved fuel economy as a change that can deliver faster results than alternative fuels and, in any event, is needed to complement any fuel choice currently being considered.

But few advances in these fuels can take place without a market for their use, a market that cannot exist if drivers must travel hundreds of miles to reach the nearest filling station. Rep. Lindell is right to want Maine to take part in developing this alternative fuel, and lawmakers should encourage pilot programs to contribute much more information about ethanol and its use in Maine.